A bag holder which can hold the mouth of a bag either in an open or a closed condition is clearly desirable, and various proposals have been made in, for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,374,976, DTAS No. 1,288,503, and most relevantly in Dutch Laid-Open specification No. 7,307,199 (Grenetier). In this last, a bag mouth is held by a frame made up of two spring elements hinged together at their ends to form a closed figure of variable shape. The spring elements are transversely curved spring steel strips so that they are biased to be straight and parallel to each other. At the middle of their lengths one is to be anchored to a wall or other support, the other has a pull handle. A bag depends from between the strips with it mouth turned out over them. If the handle is pulled the strips bend, the closed figure becomes rhomboidal and the mouth of the bag is held open. When the handle is released, the tendency of the spring steel strip is straighten, due to its transverse curvature, closes the mouth of the bag.
This arrangement uses a comparatively expensive material, transversely curved steel strip, to which the bag mouth conforms. Inherently, this material is biased towards a straight condition, and this may not be the most advantageous for efficient closing of a bag mouth. Also, separate entities must be provided to form the hinges at the ends of the strips, which is an economical and manufacturing disadvantage.
An articulated frame forming a closed figure of variable shape for holding the mouth of a bag has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,329,382 but this lacks any self-closing characteristic and could be complex to manufacture.
Transversely curved strips such as used by Grenetier had previously been disclosed, fixed together at their ends and for sewing into a hem surrounding a mouth of a pouch or wallet, in FRPS No. 1,209,370. This has the disadvantages mentioned above and, moreover, is a device of a type different from that of the present invention which is for temporary reception and holding of a bag relative to a support structure.